JESUS LIVING IN MARY:
HANDBOOK OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
REIGN
Summary
I. Introduction:
1. The centrality of the reign of God in the Gospels;
2. The centrality of the reign of God in Montfort spirituality.
II. The Nature of the Kingdom.
III. The Sources of Montfort’s Concept of the Reign:
1. Scriptural;
2. The French school of spirituality.
IV. Trinitarian Reign:
1. The reign of the Father;
2. The reign of Jesus;
3. The reign of the Holy Spirit.
V. Mary and the Reign of God:
1. Mary shares in the reign of God;
2. Mary, Mother of the personal embodiment of the Kingdom.
VI. The Reign of Christ through the Reign of Mary.
VII. The Perfect Consecration, the Means of Bringing About the Reign of
Christ.
VIII. The Inheritors of the Kingdom.
IX. The Proclaimers of the Kingdom:
1. Apostles of the end times;
2. The members of the Company of Mary;
3. Priests throughout the world;
4. All men and women.
X. The Time of the Reign.
XI. The Reign of Pure Love.
XII. Conclusion:
1. Basic insight into Montfort spirituality;
2. The eschatological character of Montfort spirituality;
3. The missionary character of Montfort spirituality;
4. A clarification of devotion to Mary.
I. INTRODUCTION
God is love (1 Jn 4:8). God’s reign is the salvific rule of omnipotent
Love embodied in Christ Jesus and extended through the Holy Spirit. This
reign becomes fully operative when accepted in the interior of
humankind’s heart, thereby "making all things new" (2 Cor 5:17).
The kernel of Saint Louis de Montfort’s spirituality can be summarized
in his prayerful exclamation to Jesus: "Ut adveniat regnum tuum,
adveniat regnum Mariae. ‘Lord, that thy reign may come, may the reign of
Mary come!’" (TD 217). The vagabond missionary’s life goal was to
implement the reign of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit for the
glory of God Alone. He was convinced that this kingdom arrives only
through the reign of Mary. "Montfort in the Church of God . . . is,
before all else, the prophet and the apostle of the reign of Mary and,
through that, of the reign of Jesus Christ."1
1. The centrality of the reign of God in the Gospels
"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom" (Mt 9:35). The reign
of God is the central issue for Jesus. He is consumed with the call to
proclaim the Kingdom: "I must preach the Good News of the kingdom of God
in other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose" (Lk 4:43). The
importance and centrality of the reign of God in NT theology is
difficult to exaggerate, for it is clearly the message of the Lord, a
message which cannot be separated from his person. In the Gospels
themselves, "the herald is already being presented as the one
heralded."2
The Kingdom is identified with a poor, itinerant preacher. He himself
is the proclamation of the reign. "In the coming of Jesus, the kingdom
of God is arriving in a hidden way. Origen described the situation by
saying Jesus was the autobasileia—the kingdom of God in person. To be
more precise, we would have to say that Jesus is the kingdom of God in
the form of concealment, lowliness and poverty. In him the meaning of
his message is made visible and tangible; in him is made manifest what
God’s kingdom is. . . . Person and ‘cause’ cannot be separated in Jesus.
He is cause in person. He is the physical embodiment and personal form
of the coming of the kingdom of God."3 In Christ Jesus the Kingdom of
God has come upon us (cf. Lk 11:20). To mobilize all one’s forces in the
service of the Gospel is to be an apostle of the reign of God.
2. The centrality of the reign of God in Montfort spirituality
Although Saint Louis de Montfort has no special work, or even a section
of his writings, specifically devoted to the reign of God, nonetheless
this theme encapsulates the saint’s life and teachings. Saint Louis
Marie was consumed with the burning desire "to destroy sin and establish
the reign of Jesus Christ over that of the corrupt world" (SM 59). He
was, like Jesus, the Missionary of the Father, above all the herald of
the Kingdom of God.
Montfort’s life and writings bear out this truth. Seventeen of his
thirty-four letters or fragments of letters have the greeting "May the
pure love of God reign in our hearts" (cf. L 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.).
The salutation in his later letters, "May Jesus Christ and his Cross
reign forever! (Vive Jésus, Vive sa Croix)" (cf. L 26, 27, 29, 30,
etc.), not only calls for the reign of Jesus but makes it known that
Jesus reigns from the Cross (cf. FC).
Father de Montfort describes TD as "the preparation for the reign of
Jesus Christ" (TD 227); the conclusion of his introduction to TD also
summarizes his writing: "If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the
reign of Jesus Christ must come into the world, it can only be as a
necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary" (TD 13). The
opening sentence of the TD manuscript, as we now possess it, sets the
stage for the entire work: "It was through the most holy Virgin Mary
that Jesus came into the world and it is also through her that he has to
reign in the world" (TD 1). The reign of Christ through the reign of
Mary, "is the central point of Montfort doctrine and practice. . . . All
his Marian activity is entirely oriented to the rule of Jesus Christ as
he never ceases saying (TD 62 and 227)."4 His burning desire, the
impelling force of his life, is that "Jesus Christ, my dear Master will
reign more than ever in the hearts of men" (TD 113).
Father de Montfort describes those who have made the Consecration to
the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom through the hands of Mary as people
"who breathe only the glory and the reign of Jesus Christ by his holy
Mother and who sacrifice themselves completely to bring it" (TD 133). He
portrays Mary as the disciple in whom Jesus lives and reigns in a degree
unimaginable (TD 248) and therefore sings the beautiful Sulpician prayer
"O Jesus living in Mary" (cf. TD 246; H 111:1, 4). His plea to Jesus is
that "to the glory of your Father, / In the power of your name / Reign
in us through your Mother / Over nature and demon. Amen" (H 111:4). The
purpose of the Incarnation itself is that God may reign: "By the Ave
Maria, the Great Jesus will reign" (H 89). His purpose in founding his
missionary Congregation, the Company of Mary, was that it may "reform
the church, renew the face of the earth," so that the reign of God may
come (cf. PM 5). His future members of the Company are told by Montfort
that by being poor in spirit, the Kingdom of God is theirs (LCM 5, 7,
9). They form the core of "a great squadron of brave and valiant
soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes, to combat the world, the
devil and corrupted nature" (TD 114) in order to "extend His empire"
over all (TD 59).
Although somewhat neglected in early studies of Montfort’s
spirituality—as the biblical theme of the Kingdom was in theology
manuals—the reign of Jesus Christ is a passkey unlocking the ultimate
driving force of Montfort’s life and writings.
II. THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM
It is not without purpose that Father de Montfort prefers the term
"reign" over "Kingdom." "Kingdom" has connotations of a territory, a
land, a realm, which is not its primary meaning in the thought of Saint
Louis Marie. "Reign" stresses the dynamic, penetrating, current rule of
the God of love among those who accept that rule. These inheritors of
the Kingdom experience its corresponding "interior" transforming
effects, which overflow on the world itself. This thought coincides with
contemporary theology, which prefers to translate the scriptural
basileia tou theou (the Kingdom of God) by "the lordship or reign of God
since basileia means primarily the exercise of royal power, sovereignty
and dignity, and only secondarily the realm or territory."5 Montfort
expressly says: "The kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the
heart or the interior of man —according to the words ‘The kingdom of God
is within you’—in like manner the kingdom of Our Blessed Lady is
principally in the interior of man; that is to say, his soul" (TD 38;
cf. TD 113). Not that Saint Louis Marie does not envision the final,
ultimate transformation of the universe itself. Montfort speaks of a
reign that includes "the reform of the church and the renewal of the
face of the earth" (PM 17), of great things being accomplished "in the
world" (SM 59) and "on the earth" (TD 272). This can only be achieved,
however, by transforming human hearts. It is this "interior"
transformation of humankind—the result of the reign of Jesus Christ
through the reign of Mary—to which he principally dedicates his life and
writings, so that there will be truly an evident reform of the church
and a visible renewal of the face of the earth.
The missionary’s interpretation of the scriptural reign of God is
dynamic. As Kingdom parables often denote growth (cf. Mk 4:30-32), so
Saint Louis Marie emphasizes the unfolding of the Kingdom. He dedicates
himself wholeheartedly to the development of the total rule—the lordship
of Christ—within the hearts of all so that humankind may be lead in the
Spirit to the interior castle of the Father, God Alone, God Who is Love
(TD 215; H 5). The Kingdom is a present reality, inasmuch as God’s reign
imparts new life to the world now; but Montfort’s view of the biblical
Kingdom of God is primarily eschatological. He looked forward with
extreme urgency to the fullness of that reign and yearned to be a faith
instrument in bringing it about. He was intent, therefore, to form
others—through the perfect renewal of Baptism—to be an army filled with
the Holy Spirit to transform the reign of Satan into the reign of Jesus
Christ. This goal ahead mesmerized the saint. His life and writings were
a response to the challenge consuming him: the reign of God must be
constantly intensified and thereby become a full reality in the hearts
of humankind and in the world itself.
Montfort understood this scriptural reign of God as the fruit of the
Holy Spirit working through Mary. His contemplative praying of the
proto-evangelium (Gen 3:15) and the Lucan Annunciation narrative (Lk
1:26-38) convinced him that the Gospels are proclaiming that the reign
of Christ Jesus will only come about through the reign of Mary. For, as
she is the indissoluble Spouse of the Holy Spirit (TD 85), the Spirit is
operative through her in a unique and all-encompassing way, forming not
only the Head of the Mystical Body but also "all the divine persons
outside of the Trinity" (PM 15).
III. THE SOURCES OF MONTFORT’S CONCEPT OF THE REIGN
The sources from which Montfort drew the essential lines of his
teachings on the Kingdom of God were primarily the Gospels and the
French school of spirituality.
1. Scriptural
Saint Louis de Montfort was a man imbued with a love for the inspired
Word of God. The Bible was the principal source of his preaching and
writings. Texts from the Word of God literally abound in his works.
Without doubt, Montfort’s contemplative study of the Scriptures was the
primary root giving rise to his teachings on the Kingdom of God. When
the saint writes to his sister, "Seek ye first the kingdom," (L 7) he is
reflecting his own living of this text (Mt 6:33). As the reign of God is
the principal theme of the preaching of Jesus, so it is not surprising
that it became the principal theme of the proclaimer of Jesus. Montfort
was determined to fulfill the central petition of the Lord’s Prayer,
"Thy kingdom come" (Mt 6:10).
Montfort’s spirituality is founded upon the Annunciation narrative (Lk
1:26-38); so too his doctrine on the reign of God. God, Who is King from
all eternity (cf. FC 55; PM 25, etc.), reigns in person among us in
Jesus the Lord: "the reign of God, the Eternal Wisdom" (LEW 193). It is
in Mary’s womb and through her hypothetically necessary consent that
Jesus, the reign of God, came to be. Mary herself, then, is filled with
the glory of the Kingdom; she is Queen (TD 38) alongside and subordinate
to Christ the King (TD 38; SR 36, 89).
2. The French school of spirituality
Although the topic of the Kingdom of God is part of the Ignatian
Exercises that Saint Louis de Montfort experienced during his studies at
Rennes and during his several retreats at Jesuit residences, it would
appear that the French school of spirituality was the primary
contemporaneous source where Montfort culled his material for his
teachings on the Kingdom of God. Olier and John Eudes—and Eudes’
enigmatic dirigée, Marie des Vallées6—play a principal role in
Montfort’s understanding of the reign of Jesus Christ and of the end
times, so intertwined with the saint’s formulation of the Kingdom.
John Eudes represents the influence of many of the French school on
Montfort’s understanding of "reign." In his Kingdom of Jesus he repeats
a Sulpician theme dear to Montfort: "This must be our desire, our
concern, and our principal occupation: to form Jesus in us, i.e., to
have him live and reign in us and to have his spirit reign in us, his
devotion, his virtues, his sentiments, his inclinations and dispositions
. . . that he may be established and reigning in everything."7 "O Jesus,
only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I contemplate and adore you living
and reigning in your most holy Mother." 8 Charles de Condren also used
expressions that would find a place in the preaching and writing of
Montfort: "The reign of sin," "the empire of the devil," "establishing
the reign of God."9 Saint Louis de Montfort was not a copyist; he
digested, contemplated, and integrated the treasures of a variety of
authors and of diverse schools of spirituality. His creative spirit then
intertwined these various strands into a new synthesis of the biblical
theme of the Kingdom of God.
IV. TRINITARIAN REIGN
Montfort’s stress on the Trinity is integral to his concept of the reign
of God. His doctrine on the triune God is not something merely
theoretical; it is lived, experienced, flowing from his mystical union
with the three Persons of God. Like Elizabeth of the Trinity centuries
after him,10 Mont-fort expresses what he has himself tasted in the
depths of his being. God reigns as triune.
Consistent with his implication that grace is in the realm of quasi-
formal causality, each Person of the Trinity reigns in the Christian
according to His individual properties. This be-comes evident in the
saint’s description of Mary as the daughter of God the Father, the Mother
of God the Son, and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit (cf. TD 16-36). God
reigns in Mary in three distinct ways, as three distinct Persons of the
one Godhead.11
Montfort the mystic-apostle is not speaking of three different reigns
or three different kingdoms. All three Persons must reign in the soul
simultaneously, for, as relational realities, one Person cannot reign
without the other (perichoresis). 12 The soul is possessed by the one
God in three distinct and non-interchangeable ways.
This helps us to understand the missionary’s famous statement,
borrowed substantially from the enigmatic Marie des Vallées: "The reign
especially attributed to God the Father lasted until the flood and ended
in a deluge of water. The reign of Jesus Christ ended in a deluge of
blood, but your reign, Spirit of the Father and the Son, is still
unended and will come to a close with a deluge of fire, love and
justice" (PM 16). The expression cannot be violently wrenched from the
entire context of Montfort’s Trinitarian thought and used to uphold some
variation on a heterodox Joachimite division of the reigns of God.13
Such an interpretation goes counter to the most fundamental thought of
the saint on the reign of the Trinity.14
1. The reign of the Father
The Father reigns in the soul precisely as the origin, the source, the
fountainhead of all holiness, as the Infinite Lover (H 52 passim; H 53),
the eternal infinite Speaking, the "good Father" (H 109:33, 38; H 52:2),
the "God of tenderness" (H 109:26; H 52:11; etc.), "Father loving us
even to excess" (H 109:2). God Alone is the source from which the Son
and Holy Spirit proceed without any subordination. The Father is the
Lover pouring Himself out. All things flow from the Father; all return
to the glory of God Alone.15 The Father, termed "the Ancient of Days"
(Dan 7:13) to signify His eternity, is the eternal day-spring, eternal
dawn, creative outpouring of life. This mighty God of tenderness reigns
not only in the brightness of eternal light but also "here on earth" (TD
217), "in this world" (H 109:35, 37). It is to the glory of God the
Father that we are led through Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
Adapting in a positive manner the ominous words of the mystic Marie
des Vallées, Montfort describes the special reign of God the Father as
culminating at the Flood in a deluge of water. The Flood may well
signify the blocking by man through sin of any depth experience of God’s
reign as Father, Abba. Not that the Father ceases to reign; tragically,
his reign is not accepted by creatures. It will be through the Incarnate
Son, through a deluge of blood, and in the Spirit through a deluge of
love, that we can again cry out from the depths of our spirits, "Abba,
Father" (H 7:31).
One could summarize by saying that according to Montfort, the First
Person of the Trinity reigns in us precisely as the good Father of
Infinite Love, the God of tenderness, the source and goal of all (cf. H
52; H 53).16 This reign is truly experienced through the redemptive
Cross of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
2. The reign of Jesus
The Son reigns precisely as the Beloved, as the Wisdom of the Father, as
the infinite and eternal being-spoken, the Word. He is the divine Second
Person of the Trinity, Who is now personally externalized in and through
this creation. The infinite Lord has sent His beloved son (Mk 12:6) into
the vineyard; the Word of the Father is made flesh (Jn 1:14). The
Incarnate Wisdom is the reign of God (LEW 193), "the physical embodiment
and personal form of the coming of the kingdom of God."17 He has come so
that we may have life and have it more abundantly through the "deluge of
blood," as he reigns on Calvary. His lordship in us is always marked by
the Cross (cf. FC passim).
Any sharing in the divine life, any entry into the reign of God must,
then, be in and through Jesus. "He is our only Way who can lead us; our
only Truth whom we must believe; our only life who can animate us; and our
only All in all things who can satisfy us" (TD 61). All of our
perfection, our life in God Alone, comes only, Montfort insists, through
the Son, in the power of the Spirit. This could be paraphrased as saying
that the reign of God is a gift, unmerited, to which we have access only
through the culmination of all creation, Jesus, the personal epiphany of
the Wisdom of the Father.
Although the reign of God in person, Jesus is only fully manifest as
the reign through the paschal mystery. Even in the womb of Mary at the
moment of his conception, he has come to do the will of the Father (cf.
TD 248), to redeem humankind through his life, death, and Resurrection.
There is, then, in Jesus a dynamic "becoming" in his presence as the
Kingdom of God. Having taken on the opaqueness of our humanity, which
was in rebellion against the Creator, he becomes more and more
transparent of who he is from the first moment of his conception: the
reign of God. His Resurrection is the climactic epiphany of the reign.
It is only when glorified that he, as the victorious Eternal and
Incarnate Wisdom, is the sender with the Father of the Holy Spirit.
Yet from our point of view, Jesus does not fully reign. Although the
supreme gift of the Father, he is not fully known and loved by all. Here
we are at the core of Montfort’s theology of the reign of God. Each
person must inherit the reign of God by repentance and faith: "The
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mk 1:15).
The metanoia, the kenosis of each human being must be complete: the
emptying of self of all other reigns, of everything that impedes the
permeating of the divine rule in us. We must forcefully turn away from
sin, acknowledge the nothingness of ourselves, our sinfulness, our
rebellion. This repentance however, cannot be separated from faith: the
total, active, and responsible surrender of the self to God. Through
grace’s empowering call, we must release ourselves into the reign of God
Who is Jesus. That means, for Montfort, the total, absolute, surrender
on every level of being to Jesus (cf. TD 121-125). Through Jesus, in the
Spirit, we experience the Father. It is only in total surrender that we
are conquerors, only in losing that we find ourselves, only in dying to
self that we live. Only by lovingly accepting who we are18—slaves of
Jesus—do we share in the reign of God. This is Montfort’s goal: to
proclaim this truth by every means possible, to attract all to a life of
sharing in the divine omnipotence of love, of partaking in the reign
through the obedience of faith for the glory of God Alone. Only through
this growth of the reign of God among people will the Church be reformed
and the earth renewed. This is the craving of his life, the all-
consuming drive propelling him to proclaim everywhere and to all: Let
Jesus Christ be known and loved. Let Jesus Christ reign in our hearts!
3. The reign of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit reigns in the soul as the infinite breath of the Father,
the Loving uniting the Lover and the Beloved (TD 36; H 141:1), as the
ecstasy of pure receiving from Father through the Son. These Persons are
three intrinsic personal relationships in which the one Love Who is God
subsists.
In Montfort’s concept of the reign of God, the Holy Spirit plays a
unique role. It is the Spirit—pure receiving—Who at the Incarnation
shares this property so that the humanity is the pure receiving of the
divinity, binding the humanity to the divinity hypostatically: the
Incarnate Wisdom of God, the lordship enfleshed. After the Resurrection,
the Spirit is sent by the Father through the Incarnate Son to draw all
people into the life of God. Pentecost—the outpouring of the Spirit—
binds Christians together in the love of God, forming the one Body of
Christ for the glory of the Father. In the Spirit, through the glorious
embodied reign—the Son—we are led back into the Father.
The Spirit overshadows Mary, reigning in her as the deluge of pure
love, forming within her the personal form of the reign of God. It is,
then, this deluge of pure love that must be poured out on all people
(cf. Joel 2:28-29), transforming them into inheritors of the reign of
God. Montfort prays for this deluge (PM 16, 17), this continual
Pentecost, so that the reign of God may come into the hearts of all
totally surrendered to divine love. "Mary has produced, together with
the Holy Spirit, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a
God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that
there will be in the end of time" (TD 35).
V. MARY AND THE REIGN OF GOD
The role of Mary in the theology of the reign of God is essential,
according to the thought of Saint Louis de Montfort.
1. Mary shares in the reign of God
No pure creature19 so shares in the reign of God as Mary. In her we see
the supreme exemplification of the conditions to enter the Kingdom:
turned away from sin and turned—actively, responsibly—to the Lord. She
is the Immaculate Conception, the sinless one, and therefore totally
poor, empty of self. She is also total response to the Trinity’s
empowering call to share in divine life through Jesus, her Son. She is
the first participant in the reign; she shares in its fullness as no
other. Her life is also a pilgrimage of faith, of a deepening share in
the reign through her ever-intensifying consent to God’s inscrutable
will.
Mary is the holy one in the Holy, Jesus the Lord. So intensely does
she share in the Incarnate Holiness, her Son, that she forms with him
but one heart (H 40:36, 37; H 134:8). In her, God reigns supreme. No one
participates in the life of the Incarnate Son, the reign of God, as his
mother. Through her divine motherhood and her fullness of grace, she
shares in the reign of God beyond what the mind can fathom (cf. TD 5-7).
Mary is the model of participation in the Kingdom, for she is "poor in
spirit," "pure in heart," "like a little child"—the requirements laid
down by Jesus for entry into the reign—in total surrender to Infinite
love. To gaze upon her is to see in a living person what is meant by
entering the Kingdom of God.
Mary, as the "first" in the reign of God, is expressed by Montfort in
analogies of presence, sharing: she is "the paradise of God," "the
tabernacle of God," "the resting place of the trinity," etc. (cf. TD
262).
2. Mary, Mother of the personal embodiment of the Kingdom
It is through the Incarnation—the root of all mysteries—that the reign
of God becomes an enfleshed reality in our creation. Mary’s fiat gives
entrance to the in-breaking of the victorious life of the Beloved, Who
conquers the reign of Satan. God has made Mary’s consent hypothetically
necessary so that the Kingdom of God may rise upon the ashes of the
kingdom of Satan. It is in the name of all creation, held bondage to
sin, that Mary surrenders to the overshadowing Spirit so that the Father
may speak his Eternal Word—establish His reign—in Mary’s bosom, for us.
Through her salvific and eternal Yes, she is the "cause of our joy," for
through her divinely willed assent God reigns in this world (cf. LEW
107; H 27:9; SR 45; TD 15, 49).
VI. THE REIGN OF CHRIST THROUGH THE REIGN OF MARY
If it is through Mary that the reign of Christ in this world has begun,
it is only through Mary that the reign of Christ can be implemented and
reach fulfillment. "If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the
kingdom of Jesus Christ are to come into the world, they will be but a
necessary consequence of the knowledge and the kingdom of the most holy
Virgin Mary, who brought Him into the world for the first time and will
make His second advent full of splendor" (TD 13; cf. TD 1, 22, 262).
Montfort’s thought centers on the Incarnation, the summary of all the
mysteries of the faith (TD 246-248). The Incarnation is the beginning,
the never-to-be-repealed law governing God’s plan of salvation. For the
beginning is not only the first; it encapsulates everything that flows
from it. The reign of Christ is, therefore, the prolongation and
fulfillment of the Incarnation. And as the Incarnation calls for the
salvific, effective, eternal, representative role of Mary,20 then it is
only through Mary’s divinely willed cooperation that Jesus reigns in the
world. The full flowering of the reign of Christ finds its root in the
Incarnation, where Mary’s Yes plays an intrinsic, hypothetically
necessary role. Mary must, then, play an intrinsic role, willed by God,
in the growth of the reign of God within human hearts. "The conduct
which the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue
in the incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, they still
pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole church; and
they will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last
coming of Jesus Christ" (TD 22).
As the inseparable Spouse of the Holy Spirit (TD 34, 36), she is
indissolubly united to the Spirit (TD 85) in His role of drawing all
into the reign of God through the deluge of pure love. The Spirit works
through Mary in forming the Head; the Spirit works through Mary in
forming the members (PM 15; SM 13; TD 32). The deluge of pure love—the
Holy Spirit—brings about the bonding of the humanity to the divinity
hypostatically at the Incarnation through the consent of Mary. The
deluge of pure love—the Holy Spirit—gives entry for all peoples to the
reign of God through the eternal consent of Mary.
It is not that God has any absolute need of Mary in order to reign in
this world. But as Montfort consistently repeats, since God has chosen
Mary as the means by which He will reign in this world, it is only
through Mary’s reign in us that we enjoy the participation in the life
of the King. According to God’s plan, which does not change (TD 15), the
age of Mary is the time when the Spirit ever more intensely overshadows
the cosmos and brings forth Christ in our hearts for the glory of God
the Father (TD 217). This reign of Mary will bring with it the return of
those separated from the Catholic Church and the entry of non-Christians
into the Church (TD 50). The reign of Satan was begun by a man, a woman,
and a tree; the reign of Christ will overcome the kingdom of Satan in the
same way in which the devil conquered: a tree, the Cross; a New Adam, Jesus
the Lord; a New Eve, Mary (cf. TD 52-54).
The reign of Mary implies total openness to her effective rule as
Mother and Queen, enabling us to be like her in total surrender to the
deluge of pure love, the Holy Spirit. Christ, embodiment of the reign of
God, will then be formed more intensely in our hearts. Mary, the first
disciple, the first Christian, enthrones the King in her heart and in
her womb by her loving, total fiat. When we enter into Mary and lose
ourselves in her dispositions, Christ will capture our hearts in the
power of the Spirit, to reign as King. Such is the inscrutable plan of
God. When Mary is Queen, Christ will truly be King. "Ut adveniat regnum
tuum, adveniat regnum Mariae" (TD 217). It is the age of Mary that will
usher in the reign of Christ: "When will that happy time come when the
divine Mary will be established as Mistress and Sovereign in hearts in
order to submit them fully to the empire of her great and princely Son?
When will souls breathe Mary as the body breathes air? When that time
comes wonderful things will happen on earth. The Holy Spirit, finding
his dear Spouse present again in souls, will come down into them with
great power. . . . When will that happy time come, that age of Mary,
when many souls . . . will hide themselves completely in the depths of
her soul, becoming living copies of her, loving and glorifying Jesus?"
(TD 217). "Sooner or later the Blessed Virgin shall have more children,
servants and slaves of love than ever; and that by this means, Jesus
Christ, my dear Master, shall reign in hearts more than ever" (TD 113).
"Mary has to be made known and revealed by the Holy Spirit in order that
through her, Jesus Christ may be known, loved and served" (TD 49; cf. TD
50).
VII. THE PERFECT CONSECRATION, THE MEANS OF BRINGING ABOUT
THE REIGN OF CHRIST
Devotion to Our Lady intensifies oneness with Christ, the reign of God.
In LEW 193 Montfort therefore can say: "For myself, I know of no better
way of establishing the reign of God, Eternal Wisdom, than to unite
vocal and mental prayer by saying the holy Rosary and meditating on its
fifteen mysteries." Perfect devotion to Mary is synonymous with the
perfect Consecration, whose goal is the implementation of the reign of
Christ in the hearts of all (LEW 227). This perfect renewal of Baptism
entails losing oneself in Mary (TD 259), taking on her spirit, so that
with her, in her, by her, and for her we can live more perfectly in
Christ Jesus. It is not only a formula to be pronounced but, above all,
a life to be lived, a life in total and loving conformity to reality:
Jesus is Lord who comes to us through Mary.
Montfort, therefore, sees the need of proclaiming the Consecration so
that the reign of Christ may be more intensely lived in the hearts of
all people. If only the poor, the pure in heart, those who are like
children, enter the Kingdom of God, then the Consecration fulfills these
evangelical conditions, for it is a total stripping of pride, a kenosis
of everything that we claim as our own, so that our lives may be lived
with Mary and under her maternal influence for God Alone. Since the
Consecration is the perfect renewal of the baptismal vows, the Gospel
lived to the hilt, it is a sure means of entering into the Kingdom who
is Jesus. "That time [the age of Mary] will not come," writes Saint
Louis de Montfort, "until people shall know and practice this devotion
[the life of total Consecration] which I am teaching" (TD 217; SM 259).
VIII. THE INHERITORS OF THE KINGDOM
The personal commitment (faith) demanded by Jesus for participation in
the Kingdom is equivalent to saying that the Kingdom is for the poor.
For faith is the living-out of the reality of our utter existential
poverty. Its opposing concept is pride, haughtiness, self-righteousness.
Jesus tells us: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 18:3). The Gospels stress this
point by depicting Jesus as "proclaiming the gospel to the poor" (cf. Mt
9:35; 11:5). The reign is for those who "labor and are heavy laden" (Mt
11:28), for "tax-collectors and sinners" (Mt 11:19), for the sick, the
lame, the deaf, the blind. So insistent is Jesus that the Kingdom is
only for the poor that he proclaims in the first Beatitude, which
summarizes them all: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of
God" (Lk 6:20). He boldly proclaims: "I came not to call the righteous
but sinners" (Mk 2:17); and addressing some of the haughty religious
leaders of the day, he states: "Truly I say to you, the tax collectors
and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you" (Mt 21:31).
It is on this scriptural foundation that Montfort founds his
proclamation of the Kingdom to the poor. It is one of the most
predominant elements of his life; it is an essential element of his
spirituality, an integral part of the rules given to his religious
Congregations. His writings are not for the proud and haughty but for
"the poor and simple" (TD 26, 65). It is only those who carry the Cross
with Jesus who share in the glory of his reign (LEW 180; FC 9, passim).
Montfort’s identification with the poor, to a point that baffled the
ecclesiastical authorities, is founded upon his obedience to the Gospel,
Good News for the poor of the Kingdom of God (cf. Mt 11:4-6).
IX. THE PROCLAIMERS OF THE KINGDOM
Montfort yearns to form a squadron of men and women who are not only
sharers in the reign but who become Spirit-filled instruments in
bringing about the reign of Christ. These apostles of the end times live
the baptismal perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ through the hands of
Mary. Baptism is of its every nature apostolic; Marian devotion is of
its very nature apostolic.21 The Consecration, as the renewal of our
baptismal vows with its explicit Marian dimension, propels those who
live it to proclaim the reign of Christ, no matter the cost. Whoever
lives the Consecration authentically is of necessity an apostle of the
reign of Christ. As Montfort insists, devotion to Our Lady—and
particularly the perfect Consecration —is a requisite for these
apostles. It not only preserves them in the reign of God but is their
weapon in conquering the empire of Satan.
1. Apostles of the end times
These proclaimers of the Kingdom Montfort creatively terms "apostles of
the end times." "Apostles," for they are truly sent by the Spirit to
kindle the fire of divine love throughout the world, to renew the face
of the earth and reform the Church. They are apostles of "the end
times," i.e., they bring about the flowering of the reign of Christ,
which takes place as the universe approaches ever more closely to its
goal, Omega, the triumphant reign of Christ the King, when all creation
will be a shout of Alleluia to the Lord. In a certain sense, these
apostles bring about the end times by their bold, charismatic preaching.
Their apostolate instills a greater knowledge and love of Mary and,
therefore, of Jesus. The Spirit, the deluge of pure love, works through
them, binding all people to the Father and the Son and thereby giving
entry into the very life of the Godhead. "We are given to believe that,
towards the end of time and perhaps sooner than we expect, God will
raise up great men filled with the Holy Spirit and imbued with the
spirit of Mary. Through them, Mary, most powerful Sovereign, will work
wonders in the world, destroying sin and setting up the kingdom of Jesus
her Son upon the ruins of the corrupt kingdom of the world" (SM 59).
2. The members of the Company of Mary
Specifically, these apostles of the end times comprise for Montfort,
first of all, his Company of Mary. To this chosen bodyguard of God’s
house and glory (PM 30) the Lord has, in a special way, given the charge
of renewing the earth and reforming the Church, thereby bringing about
the reign of Christ through Mary. PM describes this company as the core
group of the apostles of the end times. Living the Consecration
themselves, shining examples of the reign of Christ through the reign of
Mary, wherever they go they destroy the empire of Satan and establish
the reign of Christ. In the thought of Montfort, entry into the Company
of Mary is admission into the "garde-corps (bodyguard)" whose purpose is
to establish the reign of Christ through Mary.
3. Priests throughout the world
But Montfort is no elitist; in no way does he limit these apostles of
the reign to the Company of Mary. His is an urgent call, a heartfelt
plea to all priests to join with him in battle against the forces of
evil (PM 29; TD 56-59). His call is for a renewal of authentic priestly
life, a plea to priests to shake off any lethargy and be who they are by
their ordination: the sacramental expressions of Jesus Priest-Victim.
Like so many of the French school of spirituality who became involved in
the renewal of the clergy—Vincent de Paul, Jean-Jacques Olier, John
Eudes—so too Montfort sees that the reign of Christ will come about when
the priests are exemplary proclaimers of the Kingdom of God. But
Montfort is not involved in the teaching or academic formation of
clerics, and he prohibits his Company of Mary from engaging in it. His
role is, rather, to call all priests to a profound interior renewal of
their priestly vocation as effective announcers of the reign of God.
4. All men and women
The missionary’s squadron of apostles of the reign is not a snobbish
clerical organization. It also involves laymen and laywomen who, by
their living examples and apostolic life, will join in this incursion
into the realm of Satan and plant the victorious standard of the Cross
of Christ the King. These laity must be filled with the spirit of Mary,
the Spouse of the Holy Spirit; they must know and cherish their life of
Consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom in order to share more
fully in the reign of Christ her Son. They are to be the children of
Mary and, therefore, apostles of her Son who fearlessly bring about the
reign of Christ especially to the poor, the disenfranchised, the rejects
of society (TD 47, 48, 114).
Montfort is calling, therefore, for a revolution of love in order
to implement the reign of Christ. Faithful to the Good News, he
overturns accepted values of the world for the radical demands of Jesus
Christ. In the eyes of the world, his plan to establish the Kingdom of
God—identical to the Gospel plan—is foolishness. Its strength can only
be experienced by people of faith who under the effective influence of
Mary, Mother and Queen, freely release themselves wholeheartedly into
the life of a renewed and vibrant baptismal vocation.
X. THE TIME OF THE REIGN
When will the reign come about? As stated in a more detailed manner in
the article End Times in this Handbook, the time of the reign of God has
been interpreted by Gebhard and Plessis as simultaneous with a
"spiritual reign," "the coming of Jesus among us . . . through grace."22
There are, therefore, three advents of Jesus: the Incarnation, grace,
and the Parousia. According to these authors, Montfort situates his
teachings on the reign of Christ within the "second" coming, i.e.,
through grace. The primary text used for this opinion is TD 22: "The
plan adopted by the three persons of the Blessed Trinity in the
incarnation, the first coming of Jesus Christ, is adhered to each day in
an invisible manner throughout the church and they will pursue it to the
end of time until the last coming of Jesus Christ."
Frehen, however, following the lead of Lhoumeau, interprets Montfort’s
vision of the reign of Christ as connected to the Parousia itself: "The
reign of Jesus, connected to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, consists
in an ‘entire reign,’ that is to say, that Jesus Christ is perfectly
loved and perfectly served; this demands, as a necessary presupposition,
that he be ‘perfectly known.’"23 Frehen stresses Montfort’s words: "When
our loving Jesus comes in glory once again to reign upon earth—as he
certainly will—he will choose no other way than the Blessed Virgin by
whom he came so surely and so perfectly the first time. The difference
between his first and second coming is that the first was secret and
hidden but the second will be glorious and resplendent. Both are perfect
because both are through Mary" (TD 158; cf. TD 22). Frehen believes that
when Montfort speaks about the reign of Jesus Christ, he is speaking
about the necessary presupposition for the Second Coming of the Lord,
the Parousia, i.e., that Jesus be perfectly known and loved, and thereby
glorious and resplendent.
J. Séguy considers the reign of Christ as explained by Montfort as an
earthly triumph of an undetermined length of time between the time of
the Church and the Parousia.24 According to this classification,
Montfort is implicitly following a Marian adaptation of the millenarian
thought of Joachim of Flore,25 an opinion strenuously and rightfully
denied by R. Laurentin26 and Cardinal de Lubac.27
A critical study of the time of the reign of Christ as envisioned by
Saint Louis de Montfort has been done by S. De Fiores.28 According to
this opinion, Montfort conceives four stages for the final times of the
Church. First, the reign of the Antichrist (cf. SM 59; TD 51; PM 4, 5,
13, 20). Second, an intermediate stage: the reign, or the age, of Mary.
This era entails the work of the Holy Spirit, the deluge of love (PM 16,
17), and the apostles of the end times (TD 58), which inaugurate a
horrible combat between the devil and the children of Mary (TD 48, 54).
Third, the reign of Jesus Christ (SM 58; TD 48; PM 4); Montfort is
anything but precise on the length of this reign because he is speaking
not of a literal Parousia but a dynamic and intensifying knowledge,
love, and service of Jesus leading to the fullness of the reign.29
Finally, everything is fulfilled by the deluge of fire and of justice
(PM 16), which reduces all the earth to ashes (PM 17) and, probably
after this deluge, the final Judgment by Christ: "God will come a second
time . . . to judge the living and the dead" (SM 58).30
The division of the first three phases should not be considered as
clearly distinct successive moments. Although the writings of Father de
Montfort lean to such a sharp division, this is more for the sake of
clarity, characteristic of the preacher to the masses. In reality, there
would seem to be an overlapping of the first three periods: the time of
evil; the flourishing of the reign of Mary and therefore of the working
of the Holy Spirit and of the apostles of the end times; the flowering
of the reign of Jesus upon earth, reaching its fulfillment in the
visible Parousia.
The reign of Jesus Christ is, then, a dynamic eschatological concept.
It is a "happening," going on now secretly, for the most part, but it
will flourish as Mary’s reign intensifies, so that the Holy Spirit’s
deluge of love will overcome the evil of the world. The full flowering
of the reign will be the Parousia, when Jesus will come again in glory
with Mary and all the saints to transform the universe into the realm of
God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
XI. THE REIGN OF PURE LOVE
Montfort makes several references to the reign of pure love. As noted
above, many of his early letters contain the greeting, "May the pure
love of God reign in your heart." The reign of the Holy Spirit is termed
a "deluge of fire of pure love" (PM 17). Those who implement the reign
of Christ are "ministers of the Lord who like flaming fire will enkindle
everywhere the fires of divine love" (TD 56). This pure love "God only
shares with those who have died to themselves and whose life is hidden
with Jesus Christ in God" (TD 81, 154). The grace of pure love is a
gift, an effect of total Consecration, "so that you will then cease to
act as you did before, out of fear of the God who is love, but rather
out of pure love. You will look upon him as a loving Father and endeavor
to please him at all times. You will speak trustfully to him as a child
does to its Father" (TD 215).
At first sight, the expression "the reign of pure love" smacks of
quietism. "Dispute over quietism or dispute over pure love have become
synonyms."31 There is, however, no heretical quietism in Montfort’s
spirituality. The "pure love" as explained by extreme quietists—a love
so "disinterested" that it permits one to give into temptation32—has no
place in the life and writings of Montfort. The apparent misuse of the
expression "pure love" by some Spanish and French quietists does not
destroy the orthodoxy of the phrase.
The reign of pure love is, for Montfort, found especially in Mary, in
her total, active, and responsible abandonment to the overshadowing
Spirit. She is addressed, "O All-aflame / with divine Love" (H 90:30;
cf. H 84:5). The opposite of pure love for Saint Louis de Montfort is
"self-love," and the saint insists upon the constant battle needed to
destroy this idol so as to center our entire lives on Jesus Christ (H
5:20, 30; TD 81, 146, 149, 197; LEW 202). The reign of pure love, then,
that Montfort wishes for his readers is the Holy Spirit, the infinite
Loving of the Father and the Son, which enables us to live for God
Alone. It destroys scruples and servile fear, immersing us in the God of
love (TD 107, 169, 215, 264). The reign of pure love as illustrated by
Montfort shows how his teaching steers in between the Scylla and
Charybdis of his day, Jansenism and quietism. Montfort insists upon the
love and approachableness of God (against Jansenism) but he also insists
upon the need for the constant struggle to empty ourselves of all idols
(against the quietistic pure love).33
XII. CONCLUSION
A brief study of the theme of the reign of God in Montfort spirituality
leads to some important conclusions.
1. Basic insight into Montfort spirituality
The reign of God can serve as an epistemological prime principle not
only for the doctrine of Saint Louis de Montfort but also for his life.
The concept undergirds Montfort spirituality, and all aspects of it may
be seen as spin-offs of this fundamental truth: "The time is fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel" (Mk
1:15). Montfort, man of the absolute in his life and writings, was
dedicated to the fulfillment of this inaugural sermon of Jesus. His
preaching, his religious Congregations, his indefatigable drive, his
penances, his unequivocal dedication and total commitment—all resulted
from the urgency he experienced to extend the reign of Christ.
2. The eschatological character of Montfort spirituality
It is a travesty to depict the spirituality of this vagabond missionary
as introverted, turned into itself. Rather, Saint Louis de Montfort is
open to the future, yearning for the coming of the fulfillment of God’s
rule. His spirituality is dynamic, tending to the goal ahead, when the
Kingdom of God will be established on the ruins of the empire of evil.
There is a vigorous thrust towards the future, towards the victorious
fulfillment of salvation history, which lies at the very foundation of
his spirituality.
In order to be proclaimers of the fulfillment of the reign, those
devoted to Our Lady must involve themselves in "the joy and hope, the
grief and anguish of people of our time, especially of those who are
poor or afflicted in any way . . . nothing that is genuinely human fails
to find an echo in their hearts. For . . . united in Christ and guided
by the Holy Spirit, [they] press onwards towards the kingdom of the
Father" (GS 1).
3. The missionary character of Montfort spirituality
It is the reign of God that forced Montfort to go into every sector of
the population and animated him to volunteer for the remotest missions
of the Church. His spirituality does not remain in the Upper Room.
Filled with the boldness of the Spirit, those who follow him are ipso
facto missionaries. They experience an unquenchable zeal to go to every
town and place to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come in Jesus and
that through Mary, the Spouse of the Spirit, we must implement that rule
of Infinite Love.
4. A clarification of devotion to Mary
The essential Marian dimension of Montfort spirituality is the direct
opposite of a narcissistic attitude. Rather, it spurs us on to bring
forth Christ in the souls of men, to strip ourselves of everything in
order that Jesus be known. The Christocentrism of Montfort Mariology is
seen even more clearly in light of his doctrine on the Kingdom of God.
The age of Mary is not an end in itself. It is pregnant with Jesus, the
embodied reign of God. It must experience the birth pangs of struggle
with evil in order to bring forth the King. The more we "lose ourselves
in Mary," the more we will live the reign of Christ and become bold
apostles ushering in the victorious rule of God.
The communicating of a deeper knowledge and love of Our Lady has as
its goal a deeper knowledge and love of Our Lord so that he may reign in
our hearts (TD 49, 50). Devotion to Our Lady is for those willing to
risk all in living the radical demands of the Kingdom. It is for those
willing to be dynamic signs of the Church of the eschaton. When
Christians breathe Mary as they do air, especially through total
Consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, we have present one of
the signs that the goal is at hand, that the fullness of the reign is
fast approaching.34 "When the Church is ‘Mary,’ Christ will be able to
be born and finally to reign in the world."35 "The Mother of Jesus . . .
is the image and beginning of the church as it is to be perfected in the
world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the
Lord shall come (cf. 2 Pet 3:10), a sign of certain hope and comfort to
the pilgrim People of God" (LG 68).
Notes:
(1) J. M. Hupperts, Pour elle (For Her), Série Immaculata 5,
Secretariat Marie-Médiatrice, Louvain 1957, 24. (2) J. Fitzmyer, The
Gospel according to Luke (I-IX), Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1981,
153. (3) W. Kasper, Jesus the Christ, Paulist Press, New York 1976, 100-
101; cf. Mk 10:29, where it appears there is an identification of Jesus
with the Good News. Cf. J. Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke,
153. (4) J. Hupperts, Pour Elle, 56. (5) P. Hunerrmann, Reign of God, in
The Concise Sacramentum Mundi, Seabury, NY 1975, 1349; cf. R.
Schnackenburg, Note on Theological Terminology, in God’s Rule and
Kingdom, Herder & Herder, New York 1963, 354-357. (6) Cf. S. De Fiores,
Le Saint Esprit et Marie dans les derniers temps selon Grignion de
Montfort (The Holy Spirit and Mary in the End Times according to
Grignion de Montfort), in EtMar 43 (1986), 133-171. (7) St. Jean Eudes,
Royaume de Jésus (Kingdom of Jesus), in Opera Completa, 1:271ff., cited
in Lectionnaire propre à la congrégation de Jésus et Marie (Lectionary
Proper to the Congregation of Jesus and Mary), Paris 1977, 56-57. (8) S.
Jean Eudes, Royaume, 432; Lectionnaire, 129. (9) Charles de Condren,
Pièces diverses, ed. Auvray des Lettres, 541, cited in Lectionnaire,
167. (10) Cf. Jean Lafrance, Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Charism of
Her Prayer, Darlington Carmel, 1983. (11) Montfort shows a remarkable
knack of getting across profound Trinitarian theology in many of his
hymns, e.g., "In God there are Three Persons / Father, Son, Holy Spirit
/ Three infinitely Good, / I believe it for God has said it. / Three
make only one God for the Three have only one Essence: / The Father is
God, the Son is God, / The Holy Spirit is God. / All equal in substance"
(H 109:2). (12) Cf. W. Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, Crossroad, New
York 1982, 283-285; cf. DS 1331. (13) Cf. J. Séguy, Millenarisme et
"Ordres adventistes": Grignion de Montfort et les "Apôtres des Derniers
Temps" (Millenarianism and "Adventist Orders": Grignion de Montfort and
"The Apostles of the End Times"), in Archives de Sciences sociales des
religions, 53/1 (January-March 1982), 29-30. (14) The literary genre of
PM must also be a hermeneutical tool in deciphering Montfort’s
understanding of the reign of the Father, the reign of the Son, and the
reign of the Holy Spirit. He is caught up in contemplative prayer, in a
lovingly violent pleading with God that springs from the center of his
soul, begging God to send missionaries all aflame to proclaim the
Kingdom of God. The text is not from an academic treatise on De Deo
Trino. Using analogies borrowed from mystics, Montfort speaks of the
triple reign of the triune God: a deluge of water, a deluge of blood, a
deluge of love. The text cannot be wrenched from the total context of
his Trinitarian teachings without distorting the thought of the
saint. (15) Cf. R.Laurentin, Dieu Seul est ma tendresse, (God Alone is
my Tenderness), O. E. I. L., Paris 1984, 198. (16) Cf. ibid., 195-
198. (17) W. Kasper, Jesus the Christ, 101. (18) Montfort is speaking
about an explicit, faith acceptance of the reign. But if that is not
possible, a desire—whether actual (in re) or, if that also is not
possible, through desire (in voto), even implicit desire (etiam
implicito)—gives entry into the Kingdom. Cf. DS 3869-3872; LG 16. (19)
Mary is a "pure creature" (TD 14), i.e., she is, in the totality of her
being, creaturely, ab alio. Modern Christology stresses the full
humanity of Christ, insisting correctly that it is "creaturely." Because
of the hypostatic union, however, the humanity of Jesus is the humanity
of the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus, therefore, cannot be called
a "pure creature," a term that can be applied to all other human beings,
who are, of course, ontologically human persons. (20) Montfort is
interested in the present order of salvation, for in reality there is no
other. And as is evident from the development of salvation history,
Mary’s consent is hypothetically necessary (i.e., not necessary in
itself but only because of God’s free will) in salvation history; cf. TD
14, 15, 39. (21) Spontaneously addressing the members of the 1987
general chapter of the Montfort Missionaries, Pope John Paul II,
speaking directly to the superior general, said: "You have pointed out
that the two elements go together: Missionary and Marian. . . . This has
been stressed in the encyclical Redemptoris Mater and likewise in the
teaching of Vatican II in Lumen Gentium, chapter 8." The full text of
the address of the superior general and of the Holy Father’s response
can be found in QOAH (May-June 1991), 11. (22) Cf. H. M. Gebhard, SMM,
Commento al Trattato della vera devozione a Maria Vergine (Commentary on
the Treatise of the True Devotion to the Virgin Mary), in RDC 5 (1918),
3-4; A. Plessis, SMM, Commentaire du Traité de la vraie dévotion
(Commentary on the Treatise of the True Devotion), Librarie Mariale,
Pontchâteau 1943, 83-84, 152-171. (23) H. Frehen, Le second avènement de
Jésus Christ et la "méthode" de Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort (The
Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the "Method" of Saint Louis Marie de
Montfort), in Dmon 7 (1962), 101; cf. A. Lhoumeau, La Vierge Marie et
les apôtres des derniers temps d’après le B. Louis-Marie de Montfort
(The Virgin Mary and the Apostles of the End Times according to Bl.
Louis-Marie de Montfort), Mame, Tours 1919, 7-14. (24) J. Séguy,
Millenarisme et "Ordres Adventistes;" cf. L. Perouas, Ce que croyait
Grignion de Montfort et comment il a vécu sa foi, Mame, Paris 1973, 186-
187; English translation, Way to Wisdom. (25) Cf. M. F. Laughlin,
Joachim of Flore, in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 7:990-991. (26) Cf. R.
Laurentin, Dieu Seul est ma tendresse, 268. (27) H. De Lubac, La
posterité spirituelle de Joachim de Flore (The Spiritual Posterity of
Joachim of Flore), Paris, Lethielleux, Paris 1979, 232. (28) S. De
Fiores, Le Saint Esprit et Marie dans les derniers temps selon Grignion
de Montfort (The Holy Spirit and Mary in the End Times According to
Grignion de Montfort), in EtM 43 (1986), 133-171. (29) Ibid., 143. (30)
Ibid., 144. (31) Jacques Le Brun, La question du l’amour pur (The
Question of Pure Love), in DSAM, 12B:2824. (32) Cf. T. K. Connolly,
Quietism, in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 12:26-28. (33) This authentic
total abandonment—demanding so much from the soul as Montfort insists—
has become well known through the popularity of Father de Caussade, The
Joy of Full Surrender, Paraclete Press, Orleans, Mass. 1986. (34) Cf. De
Fiores, Le Saint Esprit et Marie, 145-146. (35) Ibid., 171.
Taken from: Jesus Living in Mary: Handbook of the Spirituality of St.
Louis de Montfort (Litchfield, CT: Montfort Publications, 1994).
Provided courtesy of the Montfort Fathers © All Rights Reserved.
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